Fraud for dinner
Posted Nov 11, 2010 10:57:34 AM.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Regional Police want restaurants in the Region to be prepared in “advance” of being hit by the Advance Fee Scam.
Police have received two complaints about this fraud in the past month, one incident bilked a Cambridge restaurant out of an unspecified amount of money.
Here’s how the scam worked:
The Cambridge restaurant was asked to arrange meals for a group of 20 people from Pennsylvania for a four day period, and a payment cheque was sent by courier.
But once the payment was received, the supposed customer called to cancel the event and requested a refund.
Money was wired back to the customer, and then the victim found out the original cheque sent by the customer was no good.
In the second incident, a Waterloo catering company was asked to arrange a week long business meeting for a group of 25 people from England, and provide their food.
The supposed customer said they would pay up front with a credit card number, but that from that payment the caterer was to send money to a travel agent who would arrange other details for the group.
The caterer didn’t fall for that, and didn’t lose any money.
In this incident the intended victim recognized it was a scam and did not lose any money.
Police are advising businesses to always confirm the legitimacy of the customer as well as the legitimacy of any advanced payment before agreeing to return or redistribute funds.
Also, it’s a good idea to do an internet search of the customer’s name to see if they’ve been involved in similar scams before.
